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While some may find new federal dietary recommendations and revised guidelines for school lunches tough to swallow, America has a long history of "recommending" what people should eat as well as regulating tasty morsels before they even reach our lips.

The documented history of America's relationship to farms, food and government is about as old as the country itself.

One of the first documented instances of American influence on what people eat may go all the way back to the Revolutionary War. This document, dated Aug. 9, 1776, promised generous rations to men who enlisted in the military.

The document shows that beef, pork, bread, flour, peas, beans, milk, rice, Indian meal, spruce beer, cider, molasses and a lot of salt (which was also used to preserve food) were on the menu more than 230 years ago. Such a diet was quite desirable to the average person.

The Civil War saw the introduction of some new foods for soldiers. Fresh beef wasn't always available, so calorie-rich Borden's Condensed Milk and other canned foods were introduced.

The introduction of some new foods also introduced new laws. Some of these regulations came with serious teeth, such as the Oleomargarine Act of 1886. The act imposed a tax on margarine (which had recently been created) and required facilities producing it to obtain licenses.

Violators of the Oleomargarine Act, such as Charles Wille, pictured above, were sentenced to prison. Violators either tried to avoid the tax on margarine or falsely represented it as butter. Wille was sentenced to the federal prison at Leavenworth in 1915.

Wille was not the only one to serve time for butter crimes. Joseph Wirth arrived at Leavenworth in 1911, along with his brother. Both had been convicted of oleomargarine commerce.

And Joseph McMonigle was a repeat offender. He was imprisoned twice for oleo violations, once in 1913 and once in 1915.

Another early food regulation passed in America was the Tea Importation Act, which became law in 1897. The act was meant to protect people from tea that was inferior.

The act also created a "Board of Tea Experts" who were responsible for inspecting any tea that entered the U.S. They then certified it as acceptable or not. No tea could enter the U.S. without undergoing the Board of Tea Experts' inspection.

The Tea Importation Act lasted nearly 100 years. Congress repealed it in 1996.

Eventually food laws led to the creation of an agency to oversee them – the FDA, which formed in 1930. The photo above shows FDA inspectors seizing a shipment of contaminated eggs.

The 20th Century also served up a perplexing menu of dietary recommendations.

What the government told you to eat depended almost entirely on when they said it.

For instance, take this Department of Agriculture poster from the early 1940s. It breaks down the 7 main food groups – at least there were 7 food groups at the time. What's really interesting is group No. 7, the yellow wedge in the upper left.

A closer look reveals that butter, or fortified margarine, was considered a food group in the 1940s. In fact, the poster recommended that butter be eaten every day.

And then there's this message at the bottom of the same poster, which essentially tells people that as long as they eat the groups on the chart, they are then free to eat anything else they want.

Some times what the government was trying to push onto American tables had more to do with what they wanted to get rid of. One such example is the common carp.

This is a common carp, an invasive species that first gained a finhold in American waterways in the late 1870s. The fish reproduced very quickly, killed native species and became a pest. So what better way to get rid of it than to eat it.

And so in 1911, the Bureau of Fisheries distributed this flyer – "Eat the Carp!" The flyer claims that carp is delicious and nutritious.

In fact, the flyer points out that if you cook carp the right way, it will remove the "muddy taste."

Muddy taste or not, the carp really never caught on as a food fish in the U.S.

The following images show a collection of other food recommendation campaigns, and campaigns that were pitched to the U.S. government, in the 20th Century.

Who could forget delicious "Vitamin Donuts" that come complete with pep and vigor. According the National Archives The Doughnut Corporation sought endorsement from the Nutrition Division of the War Food Administration for its Vitamin Doughnuts campaign.

This poster is from the WW II era, probably around 1942. Many food campaigns were aimed at strategically using certain foods during war time so soldiers would have enough to eat. This poster notes, "Food is ammunition. Don't waste it."

This poster is from World War I, when the Food Administration promoted "Meatless Mondays." This poster offers a protein rich alternative -- cottage cheese.

This store display, from 1917-1918, promotes potatos as "potatriots." Part of the display says, "The potato is a good soldier. Eat it uniform and all."

There were even posters advising how to cook. This poster from WW II sought to educate chefs to avoid overcooking vegetables for the troops.

The War Food Administration produced this poster in 1943. World War II was taking its toll on food supplies. In 1944, the U.S. expanded the federal school lunch program, making available more funds to purchase more food.

Food conservation was a consistent message during World War II, as shown in this poster from 1942.

Something known as point rationing was instituted during WW II. During the war a person could not just go into a store and buy as much of certain items as they liked. Some items, such as sugar and meat were rationed. American families were issued war ration books, which could be exchanged for certain goods. This 1943 photo sought to show that the system was so easy that a child could do it.

In World War I and World War II, with many goods in short supply, the government encouraged civilians to grow food in their gardens, which were often dubbed "Victory Gardens."

Today's food recommendations are not driven by shortages or war. Most efforts today seemed aimed at curbing America's obesity epidemic.

For instance, take a look at this offering from WhiteHouse.gov. This lays out a possible menu item for school lunches that would comply with the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. The chef salad, baby carrots and banana are quite a departure from...

... this entree. This is a recipe for ham shortcake, a school lunch recipe from 1946. Notice that one of the ingredients is "Table fat."

Through the years, we've caught many glimpses of what Americans were eating, including our presidents...

President Lyndon Johnson digs in to some barbecue at a Latin American ambassadors weekend in 1967.

And President Gerald Ford mugs for the cameras while making his own breakfast at his Alexandria, Va., home in 1975. Apparently he liked toast.

And we'll end this slideshow with a last meal.

This was President Richard M. Nixon's last meal in the White House. A glass of wholesome milk, pineapple and what looks to be cottage cheese were served up on a silver platter. The year was 1974.

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